The game industry needs Sony to Outsell Microsoft for sake of customer and developer freedom

Playstation Gamer League writes - It's a very good thing that the Playstation 4 is outselling the Xbox One for many reasons. However, there are two main reasons the industry needs Sony to win (especially in North America). Gaming as a whole will be better for all of us if this happens.

[dedicatedtogamers]

The industry needs competition. Isn't that what people have been saying for the last 8 years in defense of the Xbox?

Well, shoe is on the other foot now. Microsoft needs to be humbled or else they'll simply reintroduce the same DRM policies that they first announced for the Xbox One.

[xHeavYx]

The industry needs competition, yes, but if MS disappeared, some other company would replace them. I mean, the world didn't end when the Dreamcast stopped being produced.

I personally think that this article taking the issue a bit too far. MS already realized that their message was not accepted and changed their policies. I think the major problem is that MS didn't explain why they made the decisions they made, which goes to show how horrible their PR is, but for sure they won't be trying something similar any time soon *knocks on wood*

[johndoe11211]

I'm not so sure about that. Microsoft have already indicated a number of times since their 180's that they are still dedicated to their original "vision". I guess only time will tell.

[kreate]

Microsoft will eventually implement their changes overtime and little bit at a time as so the backlash wouldn't be so drastic.

Kinda like how they made consumers happily pay for xbox live. Consumers will eventually happily accept Microsoft views if the changes come in small bits and advertise to them enough times.

[GameSpawn]

Keep in mind that once Balmer officially leaves there will be that much less in the way of investors forcing Microsoft to let the Xbox division go, either by selling it or making it independent.

Microsoft has had a REAL bad run as of late with ALL their products across the board. The Zune has all but failed; Window 8 is still facing a good amount of resistance to be adopted as the new defacto standard; the first runs of Surface tablets was totally botched due to being WAY overpriced -- the Surface 2 while better is not doing that much better; Windows Phone 8 has barely made a dent in Android's and iOS's market share; Office is well Office with an increase in the number.

All of these things are putting Microsoft under LOTs of pressure to get their $&*( together. So yeah I'd be worried for the Xbox branding -- it's on some pretty thin "investor ice".

[Strikepackage Bravo]

Dude, you dont fully know what your talking about. About the only one of those you got right was Windows Phone, EVERYTHING else you said is inaccurate, including what you said about Surface 1. There is so much misinformation out there about Microsoft that most people should really just STFU.

Edit: Ill also give you Zune, however, Zune failed a long time ago, that is not a current product, its like blasting Sony for the failure of Betamax.

[Strikepackage Bravo]

Almost all of what the PS4 is, is due to competition from Xbox, the Japanese were not prioritizing any of the features that these next gen consoles currently enjoy, ALL of those features are here now because of Microsoft's lead with the XB360. The PS4 would be a 600 dollar PS2 with a faster processor and video card were it not for the western influence on the PS brand. To this day Sony is actually STILL playing catch up when it comes to services and features. PS4 is what it is, because Sony knows that is what it needs to be, in able to compete with the Xbox in non Japanese markets, period.

[Thatguy-310]

There is a reason PS1/PS2 era was the best.

[Mystogan]

No it wasn't..

[R3ddBuddah]

Point me in another Era that was remotely close to being better. Please, i'm very curious.

[Bzone24]

The PS3/Xbox 360 era is great and is still ongoing. I loved gaming during the Super Nintendo/Sega Genesis era also. An era being better is subjective and everyone will have an opinion. Just because you don't think that any other era can be remotely better than the PS1/PS2 doesn't mean you are right, but it doesn't mean you're wrong either. It is your opinion though.

[S2Killinit]

i sort of have to agree. I feel Microsoft's meddling in xbox division's affairs is not going to be good for gamers in the end.
great read by the way.

[ltachiUchiha]

I think the ps4 will outsell the ps2. I mean when u look at it, its the fastest selling console in history so far for a launch & with the best hardware & its affordable price, I can see the ps4 selling out for a long time. We all know sony is going to deliver the games like always but just at a faster rate. This will only boost sales.

[jonli1]

no there has to be competition i would want sony to dominate the console. cause their is no competition sony would be come lazy an please nintendo wii u is not really next gen competition please we need XBOX vs playstation

[Majin-vegeta]

This is what us Sony fans have been saying since M$ revelead their x1 features.

[christocolus]

This article is full of bs...I happen to love competition and so far ms is the only company which has been able to match sony..the writer talks about developer freedom but forgets what sony did when they almost monopolised the market in the past...they forced the cell and before that the emotion engine down devs throats and there was an outcry from the dev community which made some devs pull support for the platform....if ms never joined the industry and introduced pc architecture into game consoles..sonys ps4 would still be using an advanced version of the cell processor and console online gaming wouldnt be where it is now.same goes for ms, without competition the drm would have been forced on gamers without any explanation.its easy to write articles but dont allow bias cloud your write ups....the competition which ms brought to the industry has helped it..people can disagree all they like but sega and nintendo where never a problem to sony.they were childs play and sony didnt give a damn about the threat they posed..ms on the other hand brought the heat on sony with the xbox.sony execs know it...sony may seem like little angels now but trust me if the xbox sells so badly and goes away the industry will see the darker side of sony and gamers and devs wont have any other options than to bow to them..

[zerocrossing]

Good points.

Same goes for every company, if Nintendo or MS were to gain sole monopoly we'd certainly see a darker side to them too.

Regardless of everyones personal feelings we need competition in the industry to keep it from stagnating.

[Mystogan]

Disagreed for making perfect sense.

[poeawer8]

@christocolus

Where in that article did it say "Microsoft" had to die or leave? All it said is they can't be the sales leader for our sakes. And it's true.

Show a link to where Sony "forced" developers to program on Cell. That's like saying Microsoft and Nintendo "forced" developers to program with whatever their respective systems were using.

Nobody said competition was bad. But we've SEEN what happened with MS leading the marketshare. And as for the "if Sony did the same" comment, we've ALREADY seen that in the PS1 and PS2 eras. Do you think it's a coincidence you never heard developers have the complaints they do now?

And learn to write in normal paragraphs

[christocolus]

Lmao....paragraphs the issue now? You didnt have to read it you know?

Just do a research to find out how hard the emotion engine was to develop for...cos of that shinji mikami moved resident evil to game cube, itagaki moved his games and oddworld moved to xbx etc..do yourself a favor and google it..i dont write for the sake of writing...you may be too young to remember but i havent forgotten..sony had monopoly with the ps2 and they felt they could do same with the ps3..even after the outcry from developers from 5years of working on the the emotion engine sony still went ahead and released the cell processor...and you are here defending them?sony isnt any different from ms.they both run a business to make profit and if they could they would monopolise the market and get away with anything. If the xbx never joined the party,the ps4 would be using the cell again and devs would have no other options but to work that way.

That aside what devs have stated it is difficult to develop on the xbox one? I thought you sounded reasonable at first but dude you seem a bit biased. Many gamers out there love the xbx just as many do the ps too..the competition is needed to keep both companies on their toes...say all you like but i still stand by what ive written.i want the xbx one to remain and i hope it does cos i never want to see either of them monopolise the market.

[MrPerfect813]

Isnt Sony's dominance in the PS2 Era what lead them to A) take there sweet ass time with the PS3 and B) Charge up to $250 dollars more in some places for the PS3?

Sony wants to make Money and Microsoft wants to make money, as long as their is competition between the two, then at least them screwing us, the customers will be kept to a minimum.

Article hits on some good points and misses on others, i am sure someone could write an article in the same vain on how we needed the xbox 360 to take the early lead in that console battle to finally snap sony back to reality when it came to the ps3 and its pricing. Still wont forgive them for taking out Backward Compatibility and Other OS that i used.

[Capital Dream]

Why in the hell is this in the Xbox section. This is not news.

[mhunterjr]

Lol ps4 doesn't need to outsell xbox in the name of developer freedom. The economics already handled themselves. People won't buy things if they don't see value. Folks didn't see the value in Microsoft's policies, so the changed them. Problem solved.

[DanielGearSolid]

I hope everyone gets a chance to read this article. Say what you will about Sony fanboys, but facts are facts. Btw Xbox fans can thank Sony for Games With Gold too

[mhunterjr]

That the beauty of competition, companies try to gain position on each other. Xbox fans can thank Sony for games with gold as soon as PS fans are done thanking MS for PSN and PS+ .

PS+ wasn't created out of Sony's need for generosity. It was done so that Sony could begin to draw the revenue needed to create a service that could compete with Xbox live.

[DanielGearSolid]

Touche

[Mystogan]

Except these aren't facts.

[gamer2013]

This article is pure fanboy garbage. Xbox changed the whole gaming landscape with their vision of online for console gaming and real gamers know it. Without MS console gaming today would be stale compared what it is now.

*edit* Just noticed where this article came from; playstationgamerleague.com

[poeawer8]

You sound like more of a fanboy than you claim the article is.

The ONLY thing Microsoft did was make online gaming prevalent. Gaming wouldn't be "stale" without them because we've already seen what it's been like without them.

And if you're trying to say that it's fanboy "garbage" just because it's from a playstation site, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't write an article like this one here :

http://www.playstationgamer...

[gamer2013]

No need for personal attacks.

Just saying that Micro made online gaming prevalent and that's all they did is ignorant.

What Microsoft did for online console gaming:

- Friends lists

- Matchmaking

- Gamertags

- Achievements

- Firmware updates

- Community; before XBl gaming was mostly a solitary experience

Not only has XBL made online console gaming more "prevalent" it's popularized squad-based tactics, co-operative play, clubs and clans. Micro is also continuing to lead with the introduction of Azure and further improvements to their matchmaking system.

So someone actually bitches about having to pay to play on a PlayStation platform and all of a sudden their not bias? The site is named; "Playstation Gamer League" doesn't get much more pro Playstation than that; nevermind that the title and article itself is total fanboy flamebait.